Turn signal problem, any ideas? Options

[JohnM]

Having a problem with my turn signals—as in they don’t work when I hit the stalk for right or left turn and the turn signal indicator in gauge does not come on. Car just came back from rear end body work and paint and I correctly re attached rear wiring to signal light buckets from photos taken prior to sending to body shop (I have different used replacement buckets on, unknown year but the reflectors/guts, connectors part numbers match the old ones). The body shop had incorrectly hooked things up prior to this and had tried many connection combinations as they were just guessing in attempt to get the light working correctly.

Current rear tail light operation:

Brake lights work correctly
Parking & running lights work correctly
Emergency flasher works correctly (TURN SIGNAL lights both front and rear flash on/off)
Reverse lights work correctly

With all these working I believe I must have the connection to the buckets correct.

I thought it might be the actual physical turn signal switch not working/making good contact as it could have gotten dusty from the body/paint work but….

I noticed when I have the ignition key OFF and activate the turn signal stalk left or right the parking/running lights (NOT THE TURN SIGNAL LIGHTS) both front and rear come on for the left or right side depending upon which direction I move the switch. So the turn signal switch is working/making good contact and sending power to the front and rear buckets (but with key off activating the parking/running lights). The gauge turn signal indicator does not come on. With the key in any other position other than off, activating the turn signal via the stalk makes no lights come on.

With all this info and all the experience out there, surely someone can point me to the fix for this? It seems strange that when the key is off the turn signal switch turns on the right or left side parking/running lights rather than the turn signal light-- is this normal? I was thinking possibly flasher/relay unit might have been fried if they tried different combinations of light bucket connections or grounded/touched wrong wires together with switch on and battery hooked up, etc… but the emergency flasher works--maybe just a portion of the Flasher fried? Any ideas?
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/idea.gif)

[Dave_Darling]

The parking lights are the ones that light up when the ignition is off--that is the correct behavior.

I am most familiar with the 74 wiring diagram (my own car is a 74), and on those there is somewhat different circuitry running the turn signals, the parking lights, and the hazard flashers. I would speculate that there is a wiring problem up under the dash.

Sounds like the turn signal buckets are hooked up correctly.

Oh, light bulbs--do you have dual-filament bulbs in the front buckets? How about in the brake light section of the rear housings?

--DD